The firewall — it is good

Look — it’s not like Times Select is the equivalent of a Lexis-Nexis account, so I don’t exactly see the story here.

The New York Times decided earlier this week to give free TimesSelect access to college students and faculty with “.edu” in their e-mail addresses, hoping to nurture a stream of young readers that might stick with the paper and TimesSelect after they graduate. But it didn’t take long for cynics and TimesSelect critics to suggest that alumni will use the “.edu” test to cheat TimesSelect blind.

If a small handful of college students really want to join alumni associations and maintain their .edu accounts after graduation — just so they can read Tom Friedman, Maureen Dowd, and the occasional freelance trainwreck — I imagine they’ll come to their senses eventually. Then again, I suppose those alumni magazines can be awfully interesting from time to time.